DOCSLIB.ORG

BB117 Schneider TM Cseng

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
BB117 Schneider TM Cseng SCHNEIDER TM CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS CD / LP (180g Vinyl) plus CD / Download th Release: September, 28 2012 Label: Bureau B The sound of gentrification Construction noise as cosmic music Cat no.: BB117 EAN CD: 4047179673921 This is what results when a delicate musician has to live amidst EAN LP: 4047179673914 Berlin's construction noise for eight years, during the time when the former working class district of Prenzlauer Berg was transformed Distributor: Indigo into a neighborhood for higher-income earners. With his latest Indigo no.: 967392 (CD) album "Construction Sounds" Dirk Dresselhaus aka Schneider TM 967391 (LP) processes that time, when he was surrounded by constant clatter, noise, sawing, drilling, hammering, chipping, etc. Tracklisting: It happened like this: While improvising at home with his electronic equipment, Dresselhaus at some point noticed that his music was Construction Sounds (13:06) increasingly beginning to imitate the sounds and structures of the (6:15) Container construction site noise that surrounded him daily for up to 15 hours Pneumanisch (1:40) at a time and periodically brought him to the brink of a nervous Grinder In The Sky (8:24) breakdown. Container Redux (1:25) Bimanual Complexity (10:42) Perhaps as a kind of defense mechanism, he began to record the sounds and patterns produced by the construction workers and their machines, and even began to have fun in doing so. Gradually Promo contact: he had the feeling that the workers, whether consciously or unconsciously, were using their tools much like musical Bureau B, Nina Thomsen Tel. 0049 -(0)40-881666-62, instruments, even interacting, as if they were producing improvised [email protected] music. Cover/Presskit -Download: "Construction Sounds" combines these moments with the electronic www.bureau-b.com/releases recordings that Dresselhaus made during this period. He only minimally processed the recordings, as he wanted to make "those Band-Homepage: beautiful moments, generated by unknown construction workers, www.schneidertm.net which I sometimes even heard as cosmic music" available to a wider audience as faithfully as possible. Under no circumstances should one confuse "Construction Sounds" with industrial music, which either uses conventional instruments to sound like factory noise (like Kluster in 1970) or uses industrial noises as mere atmospheric or rhythmic additions to music made using instruments, as Einstürzende Neubauten did in the early 80’s. For Dresselhaus, the sounds of construction are the music itself Important: This album is not a statement, it's just beautiful music. Anyone delving into these sounds will experience it much like Dresselhaus: From the cacophony, a symphony. Short Bio Dirk Dresselhaus was born 1970 in Bielefeld, Germany. Since the late 80’s he is active in different musical fields. From 1989 until 1997 he played and sang in indie-noiserock- and pop-bands like Locust Fudge or Hip Young Things before he became more active in electronic music around 1997 with his project Schneider TM, which is responsible for a couple of experimental electro-freak-pop albums and mini-hits like ‚Reality Check’ or a coverversion of a song by The Smiths called ‚The Light 3000’ (w/ Kptmichigan). Next to many one-off projects like composing and recording music for movies (1. Mai, 66/67, Polnische Ostern etc.), theater (The Scorpionfish, Louis & Bebe w/ Joanna Dudly) or radioplays (Release, Hochhaus w/ Paul Plamper), he plays & records with freeform noise-projects like Angel (w/ Ilpo Väisänen of Pan sonic), Mr. Schmuck’s Farm (w/ Hildur Gudnadottir of Lost In Hildurness / Mum etc.) and Real Time (w/ Reinhold Friedl of Zeitkratzer) on a regular basis. Since quite a while he frequently plays improv concerts on varying instruments like guitar, electronics, balaphon or using fieldrecordings, sometimes solo and other times together with Jochen Arbeit (of Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut), Damo Suzuki (ex-Can), the japanese dancer Tomoko Nakasato and others. Discography Schneider TM: - Schneider TM, 12“, Payola 1997 - Up-Tight, 12“, City Slang 1998 - Masters, CD Maxi, City Slang 1998 - Moist, CD/LP, City Slang/Mute 1998 - Binokular (Split-EP w/Kptmichigan), CD/LP, City Slang 2000 - Reality Check, 12“, CD Maxi, City Slang 2002 - Frogtoise, 12“, CD Maxi, City Slang 2002 - Zoomer, CD/LP, City Slang/Labels/Mute 2002 - 6 Peace EP, CD, Mute 2003 - The Light 3000, (w/ Kptmichigan), 7“, For Us/Rough Trade 2003 - Reconfigures, CD/LP, Earsugar 2004 - Psychedeldic Queen/Uh Yeah, Baby!, 7“, Earsugar 2004 - Release (Hörspiel), 2xCD, Lieblingslied Records 2005 - Pac Man/Shopping Cart, 7“, City Slang 2006 - Skoda Mluvit, CD, 2xLP, City Slang 2006 - Schneider TM und Lustfaust, 7“ , MWM 2007 - Station 17 + Schneider TM, Jede Nacht, 12“, CD, 17rec, 2008 - Station 17 + Schneider TM, Goldstein Variationen 3 Redux, MWM 2008 - Cäcilie Awestruck (w/Ilpo Väisänen, Kptmichigan, Ronald Lippok, Tomoko Nakasato), 20 CD-Box/download, Hoerspielpark, 2012 - Construction Sounds, CD/LP, Bureau-B, 2012 Angel: - Angel Nr.1 – Nr.10, CD, Bip Hop 2002 - Angel and Hildur Gudnadottir, In Transmediale, CD, Oral 2006 - Angel, Kalmukia, CD/Notebook, Editions Mego 2008 - Angel, Hedonism, CD, Editions Mego 2008 - Strings Of Consciousness & Angel, LP/CD, Conspiracy Rec./Important Rec. 2009 - Angel, 26000, CD/LP, Editions Mego 2011 Dr. Drek: - More Time/Rush Moon , 7“, Earsugar 2005 Mr. Schmuck’s Farm: - Good Sound, CD, Oral 2005 Hip Young Things: - Deflowered, CD, Glitterhouse Rec. 1992 - Root’n Varies, CD, Glitterhouse Rec. 1993 - Shrug, CD/LP, Glitterhouse Rec. 1994 - Ventilator, CD/LP, Glitterhouse Rec. 1996 Locust Fudge: - Flush, CD, Glitterhouse Rec. 1993 - Royal Flush, CD, Glitterhouse Rec. 1995/Sonic Plate (Japan) 2001 - Business Express, EP, Sticksister 1996 Movie Soundtracks (as Dirk Dresselhaus): - 1.Mai-Helden Bei Der Arbeit, O.S.T., CD, Colosseum 2008 - 66/67-Fairplay War Gestern, O.S.T., CD, Colosseum 2009 - Polnische Ostern, O.S.T., download, 2011, MWM .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • ONA Ilpo Väisänen – Various Electronic Devices Billy Roisz
    ONA Ilpo Väisänen – various electronic devices Billy Roisz – electronic devices, bass guitar ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ilpo Väisänen und Billy Roisz wurden im Herbst 2011 von der Linzer Plattform qujOchÖ eingeladen, im Rahmen des Festivals Baumarktmusik gemeinsam aufzutreten. Bei den Konfrontationen 2012 nehmen sie unter dem Duo-Namen ONA diese sehr spannende Zusammenarbeit wieder auf. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ilpo Väisänen (FIN) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Sonic Together with Mika Vainio, Ilpo Väisänen was part of the Finnish duo Pan Sonic, one of the most ground-breaking and innovating projects in contemporary electronic music. In a musical form in which sequencing and recording music using computers is standard, the group was known for recording everything live, straight to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) using home-made and modified synthesizers and effect units. In December 2009 their split was announced. Mika and Ilpo will continue with their own solo projects. Ilpo’s former releases on his own label Kangaroo, a sub-label of Raster-Noton, have clearly shown his personal affinity with dub music. Actually he is also playing some kind of free- form noise with a tendency to drone with Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM) in the duo Angel. --- BIO Ilpo Väisänen: born in Kuopio, Finland, in 1963 studied flute at the conservatory as a young student studied visual arts and
    [Show full text]
  • Whitehouse, Merzbow, Maurizio Bianchi, the Haters, Hanatarash, the Gerogerigege, Massona, Prurient, John Wiese…
    As Loud as Possible As Loud as Possible Concert de Hanatarash, Toritsu Kasei Loft, Tokyo, 1985 (Photos : Gin Satoh) Concert de Hanatarash, Toritsu Kasei Loft, Tokyo, 1985 (Photos : Gin Satoh) Whitehouse, Merzbow, Maurizio Bianchi, The Haters, Hanatarash, The Gerogerigege, Massona, Prurient, John Wiese… Un parcours parmi les grandes figures du harsh noise, au sein de l’internationale du bruit sale de ses origines à nos jours. AS LOUD AS 48 POSSi- 49 bLe. Whitehouse, Merzbow, Maurizio Bianchi, The Haters, Hanatarash, The Gerogerigege, Massona, Prurient, John Wiese… A tour among the major figures in harsh noise, within dirty Noise International—from its inception to the present day. Fenêtre ouverte. Le bruit, c’est ce son fronde, indompta- juste une main pour sculpter, une intention pour guider, Mais comment la musique a-t-elle osé muter en ça ? ble, discordant, une puanteur dans l’oreille, comme l’a écrit à peine une idée pour le conceptualiser. Il n’est pas une Objectivement, si on regarde la tête du harsh noise, son Ambrose Bierce dans son Devil’s Dictionary, ce que tout musique bruyante mais une musique-bruit taillée, pas un nom, il faut tout de même se pencher un peu en arrière, le oppose et tout interdit à la musique. Le bruit sévère, le bruit genre, encore moins un mélange, car s’il est né d’amonts XXe siècle brouhaha, pour comprendre cette « birth-death dur, le harsh noise, c’est, pire encore, le chaos volontaire, la lisibles dans l’histoire de la musique, dans l’histoire du XXe experience », si l’on m’autorise à citer le titre d’un disque de crasse en liberté, même pas la musique de son-bruits rêvée siècle, il n’a dans sa pratique et sa nature d’autre horizon Whitehouse, le premier de surcroît.
    [Show full text]
  • Clever Children: the Sons and Daughters of Experimental Music?
    Clever Children: The Sons and Daughters of Experimental Music Author Carter, David Published 2009 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School Queensland Conservatorium DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/1356 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367632 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Clever Children: The Sons and Daughters of Experimental Music? David Carter B.Music / Music Technology (Honours, First Class) Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy 19 June 2008 Keywords Contemporary Music; Dance Music; Disco; DJ; DJ Spooky; Dub; Eight Lines; Electronica; Electronic Music; Errata Erratum; Experimental Music; Hip Hop; House; IDM; Influence; Techno; John Cage; Minimalism; Music History; Musicology; Rave; Reich Remixed; Scanner; Surface Noise. i Abstract In the late 1990s critics, journalists and music scholars began referring to a loosely associated group of artists within Electronica who, it was claimed, represented a new breed of experimentalism predicated on the work of composers such as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Steve Reich. Though anecdotal evidence exists, such claims by, or about, these ‘Clever Children’ have not been adequately substantiated and are indicative of a loss of history in relation to electronic music forms (referred to hereafter as Electronica) in popular culture. With the emergence of the Clever Children there is a pressing need to redress this loss of history through academic scholarship that seeks to document and critically reflect on the rhizomatic developments of Electronica and its place within the history of twentieth century music.
    [Show full text]
  • BEAUTIFUL NOISE Directions in Electronic Music
    BEAUTIFUL NOISE Directions in Electronic Music www.ele-mental.org/beautifulnoise/ A WORK IN PROGRESS (3rd rev., Oct 2003) Comments to [email protected] 1 A Few Antecedents The Age of Inventions The 1800s produce a whole series of inventions that set the stage for the creation of electronic music, including the telegraph (1839), the telephone (1876), the phonograph (1877), and many others. Many of the early electronic instruments come about by accident: Elisha Gray’s ‘musical telegraph’ (1876) is an extension of his research into telephone technology; William Du Bois Duddell’s ‘singing arc’ (1899) is an accidental discovery made from the sounds of electric street lights. “The musical telegraph” Elisha Gray’s interesting instrument, 1876 The Telharmonium Thaddeus Cahill's telharmonium (aka the dynamophone) is the most important of the early electronic instruments. Its first public performance is given in Massachusetts in 1906. It is later moved to NYC in the hopes of providing soothing electronic music to area homes, restaurants, and theatres. However, the enormous size, cost, and weight of the instrument (it weighed 200 tons and occupied an entire warehouse), not to mention its interference of local phone service, ensure the telharmonium’s swift demise. Telharmonic Hall No recordings of the instrument survive, but some of Cahill’s 200-ton experiment in canned music, ca. 1910 its principles are later incorporated into the Hammond organ. More importantly, Cahill’s idea of ‘canned music,’ later taken up by Muzak in the 1960s and more recent cable-style systems, is now an inescapable feature of the contemporary landscape.
    [Show full text]
  • Noise on the Grid: Rhythmic Pulse in Experimental And
    NOISE ON THE GRID: RHYTHMIC PULSE IN 2.1. Noise as Irregular Vibrations While Russolo’s distribution was the incorporation of EXPERIMENTAL AND ELECTRONIC NOISE MUSIC extra-musical sound in music, John Cage took a step In the first chapter of his classic writing on the further by exhausting this idea and “extending the physiological basis of the music theory, The Sensations process of incorporation” to everything potentially Mo H. Zareei Ajay Kapur Dale A. Carnegie of Tone, Herman Helmholtz argues that the differences audible [12]. In other words, if Luigi Russolo and the between noises and musical tones are rooted in our aural Futurists ‘brought incidental noise to the foreground, Victoria University of California Institute of the Arts Victoria University of John Cage would give permission to all composers to Wellington Valencia CA, USA Wellington perceptions, stating that musical tones are perceived as periodic, and noises are perceived as non-periodic use any sound in composing music’[3]. Nevertheless, New Zealand School of Music Wellington, New Zealand motions [11]. However, in Russolo’s view, although Cage himself credits Varese, who at the same time was leading the European front, “for having fathered irregularity of motions in terms of time and intensity still vouches for the difference between “sound” and noise”[12]. Varese, who called music “organized ABSTRACT his Futurist Manifesto in 1913. Calling for integration of “noise”, it is not ‘sufficient enough to make a sharp sound”, found “electronics” a new “liberating medium” more dissonant, stranger and harsher sounds into music, distinction’ [16]. As Trevor Wishart suggests, this that would help liberate sound from “the arbitrary, This paper presents a discussion on the effect of metric Russolo tried to ‘conquer the infinite variety of noise- distinction ‘is a property of the way we hear rather than paralyzing tempered system” [24].
    [Show full text]
  • Darkness Audible: Sub-Bass, Tape Decay and Lynchian Noise
    186 ‘The grainy, staticky noise of Eraserhead.’ | LISA CLAIRE MAGEE DARKNESS AUDIBLE: Sub-bass, tape decay and Lynchian noise FRANCES MORGAN Noise is the forest of everything. The existence of noise implies a mutable world through an unruly intrusion of an other, an other that attracts difference, heterogeneity and productive confusion; moreover it implies a genesis of mutability itself. —Douglas Kahn1 DREAMING IN THE BLACK LODGE FEATURING 187 In the interests of research, I undertake Death a Twin Peaks marathon, from the iconic Dread first eight episodes to the end of season Drone two. Afterwards, I dream I am lost Distortion in a dark, airy house, populated with indistinct presences. Like Dale Cooper Doom metal making his multiple ways in and out of each curtained alcove, I become increasingly confused, roaming through 1 Douglas Kahn, Noise Water Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts (M I T, 1999), p.22. The End | AN ELECTRIC SHEEP ANTHOLOGY long rooms that change in shape and size. I can hear a voice, distorted, slowed down and incomprehensible: as the register sinks lower, the house’s darkness becomes more oppressive. Fear hums like a vast machine that operates almost below audible range but whose vibrations are felt in the feet and chest; death and decay take aural shape in rumble, static and hiss. This is not the actual sound of David Lynch’s Black Lodge, of course. Twin Peaks’ sound design reflects the restrictions imposed by television, which has a smaller dynamic range than film, and the series’ abiding sonic impressions, for most, are the constant presence of Angelo Badalamenti’s score, followed by the creative use of the voice, such as the backwards/forwards dialogue used by characters in Cooper’s dreams or visions.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Cultures Listening Lists
    Digital Cultures: Music Recommended Listening and Reading (Prof Andrew Hugill) The following long (but nowhere near long enough to cover everything) listening list not only illustrates some of the key ideas about modernism and postmodernism, structuralism and deconstruction, but also adds up to a mini-history of the evolution of electronic and electroacoustic music in the 20th Century. Some brief descriptive notes are included to indicate the salient features, but there is no substitute for careful and repeated listening, with perhaps some attempt to analyse what is heard. It should be remembered that Modernism and Postmodernism are not musical styles, nor words that artists and composers use to describe their work, but rather terms from critical and cultural theory that seem to sum up broad tendencies in art. In fact, all the pieces below will probably be heard to exhibit characteristics of both ‘isms’. Some useful questions to ask when listening are: what is the artist’s intention? How well is it realized? What is the cultural context for the work? What are its compositional techniques? What is the musical language? Pierre Schaeffer ‘Etude aux chemins de fer’ from ‘Cinq études de bruits’ (1948) on OHM: the early gurus of electronic music: 1948-1980. Roslyn, New York: Ellipsis Arts. This was the first time recorded sound was assembled into a musical composition. The sounds included steam engines, whistles and railway noises. Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950) on Pierre Schaeffer: l’oeuvre musicale EMF EM114. A 12-movement musical account of a man’s day using recorded sounds.
    [Show full text]
  • How Do You Make Music a Body Without Organs? Gilles Deleuze
    How Do You Make Music a Body without Organs? Gilles Deleuze and Experimental Electronica Christoph Cox (This article appeared in German translation as “Wie wird Musik zu einem organlosen Körper? Gilles Deleuze und experimentale Elektronika” in Soundcultures: Über digitale und elektronische Musik, ed. Marcus S. Kleiner and Achim Szepanski [Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag], 162–93. A version in Italian was published in Millesuoni: Deleuze, Guattari, e la Musica Elettronica, ed. Roberto Paci Dalo and Emanuele Quinz [Napoli: Edizioni Cronopio, 2006].) Gilles Deleuze wrote about music only in passing. Throughout his philosophical corpus, one finds a scattering of musical examples and references to the classical modernists (Berg, Messiaen, Varèse, Stockhausen, etc.) who were clearly his cultural heroes. Yet Deleuze never wrote about music with the same depth and dedication that he devoted to literature, cinema, and painting. It might seem odd, then, that, in the nine years since his suicide, Deleuze’s philosophy has come to be closely linked with music and, moreover, with a musical milieu very different from the one that he called his own. For Deleuze has become the intellectual hero of experimental “electronica”—electronic music with its roots in hip hop, house, and techno rather than in the tradition of classical modernism. This relationship was initially marked by the release, a year after Deleuze’s death, of two compilations of experimental electronica presented in his honor: Mille Plateaux’s In Memoriam Gilles Deleuze and Sub Rosa’s Folds and Rhizomes for Gilles Deleuze. Since then, the discourse around electronica has referenced Deleuze at every turn. What accounts for the curious connection between this philosophical ontologist and a music scene about which he knew little and wrote nothing? It is that Deleuze helps us to think how music might become a body without organs.
    [Show full text]
  • Vol. 10 # 2 / USA / March 2003 France's Bip Hop Label Has Just Put out a Couple of Interesting Releases
    VICE MAGAZINE : vol. 10 # 2 / USA / March 2003 France's Bip Hop label has just put out a couple of interesting releases. The first is a live recording of Angel, the collaboration between Ilpo Vaisanen (of Pan Sonic fame) and Dirk Dresselhaus (from SchneiderTM). Starting off with subdued microsounds, it soon becomes a dense wall of distortion and noise. If you're in the mood for a good head and ear washing in an insane Merzbow stylee, then check this shit out. It is heavy metal's logical conclusion. The second release by Bip Hop is Sounds 2 X 12, in which four renowned electronic artists (Hakan Lidbo, Si- Cut.DB, Scanner, and Tonne) are given the same experimental, visual music-sequencing program (Soundtoy) to see what they can come up with. The resulting eight tracks vary from the completely random and incidental drone of Scanner's "Guide Me By Surprise" to the rather polished and orderly sequence of Hakan Lidbo's "Bid Dod". What's really great about this release is that you can come up with your own Soundtoy mixes using the program and samples included on the CD-ROM portion of the disc. Hours of fun! Raf Katizbak STYLUS MAGAZINE / USA / January 2003 Here's the premise: get two well-known electronic artists, put them in a studio, record them improvising music for an hour, and then release the work unedited. That's basically what you get on Angel, a live and improvised collaboration between Ilpo Väisänen of Pan Sonic and Dirk Dresselhaus, aka SchneiderTM. Here, Ilpo is playing his own homemade synthesizer, which he calls a "typewriter," while Dirk is playing a really "fucked-up" guitar.
    [Show full text]
  • Challenging Expectations: Perceptions of Canadian Music and the Localized Practices of Experimental Artists
    Challenging Expectations: Perceptions of Canadian Music and the Localized Practices of Experimental Artists By Joni Sadler A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts School of Journalism and Communication Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario ©2011 Joni Sadler Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-87790-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-87790-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Mika Vainio the Sound Artist
    Issue No. 5/2020 50 Hz: Mika Vainio the Sound Artist Leevi Haapala, PhD, Museum Director, Finnish National Gallery / Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Also published in Kati Kivinen & Rikke Lundgreen (eds.), Mika Vainio: 50 Hz. Museum of Contemporary Art Publication 172 / 2020. Helsinki: Finnish National Gallery / Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, 2020. Transl. Silja Kudel I don’t think that the actual sound, the change in air pressure, is the only thing we can call music. Music can also be visual and based on other things, physical things. – Mika Vainio1 Musical background, background as a musician Mika Vainio (b. 1963 Helsinki, Finland – d. 2017 Trouville-sur-Mer, France) was a composer, performer and DJ who achieved world renown in the field of experimental electronic music. Among his many professional accomplishments, he also carved out a notable career as a sound artist. From 1996 onwards he created more than 15 sound installations, most of them commissioned by biennials, museums and galleries in continental Europe. Many of his works were composed in collaboration with other artists, such as the band Pan Sonic’s Ilpo Väisänen and the Berlin-based artist, composer and label owner Carsten Nicolai. Vainio won admiration as the creator of highly distinctive soundscapes combining synthesizer music and carefully curated noise, achieving a recognisable minimalistic sound both in his recordings and live gigs. He left audiences spellbound by playing at frequencies that invoked a powerful, visceral experience. ‘The world is full of electronic music, but Mika Vainio’s signature style is easy to distinguish from all the rest who play with clicks, buzzes, silences, and low frequencies’, said Vainio’s friend, photographer Antti Viitala.2 The titles he came up with, such as Onko (Is It?), Ilmanvaihto (Air-conditioning unit) and Hän Oli Ääni Joskus (He Was a Sound Sometimes), are laconically declarative, and he had a unique gift for using sound to evoke visual worlds and very specific moods.
    [Show full text]
  • The Aesthetics of Failure: "Post-Digital"
    information age has surely passed. The tendrils of digital technology have in some way touched everyone. With electronic commerce now a natural part of the busi­ ness fabric of the Western world and Hollywood cranking out digital fluff by the gigabyte. the medium of digital technology holds less fascination for composers in and of itself. [... T]he medium is no longer the message; rather, specific tools themselves have become the message. The Internet was originally created to accelerate the exchange of ideas and development of research between academic centers, so it is perhaps no surprise The Aesthetics of Failure: that it is responsible for helping give birth to new trends in computer music outside the confines of academic think tanks [.... J Unfortunately, cultural exchange "Post-Digital" Tendencies in between non-academic artists and research centers has been lacking. The post­ digital music that Max, SMS, AudioSculpt, PO, and other such tools make possible rarely makes it back to the ivory towers, yet these non-academic composers anx­ Contemporary Computer Music iously await new tools to make their way onto a multitude of Web sites [.. KIM CASCONE The Aesthetics of Failure It is failure that guides evolution; perfection offers no incentive for improvement. -Colson Whitehead (1999)2 The "post-digital" aesthetic was developed in part as a result of the immersive experience of working in environments suffused with digital technology: computer fans whirring, laser printers churning out documents, the sonification of user-inter­ faces, and the muffled noise of hard drives. But more specifically. it is from the "failure" of digital technology that this new work has emerged: glitches, bugs, application errors, system crashes, clipping, aliasing, distortion, quantization noise, and even the noise floor of computer sound cards are the raw materials composers seek to incorporate into their music.
    [Show full text]